Post 1
This week’s readings provided varying stories that covered topics spanning from race and class to gender and migration. A lot of what we read in the chapter “Maid in LA” by Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and the chapter “Policing Strangers and Borderlands” by Nayan Shah reminded me of stories from family members who have gone through similar experiences when migrating to the United States for work. In class, Professor Savci mentioned how, typically, Latin American men tend to have different migration patterns than Latinas due to employment opportunities and taking on more seasonal jobs. This conversation reminded me of my uncle, a seasonal worker at a golf course in the Midwest. He works for a few months out of the year on the course and then returns home to his family in Mexico. This cycle repeats every year and has led to his constant migration in and out of the US. Recently, my sisters and I had a conversation with him about how different his life is between the United States and Mexico. The conversation slowly changed to his job and he shared his experiences of when he first migrated into the United States and how he started working at the golf course. I couldn’t help but think about what he had told me when reading for our class this past Thursday.
While reading the chapters, two comments from our exchange stood out in comparison to the texts. In “Maid in LA,” Hondagneu-Sotelo recalls Latina immigrants requiring to learn how to clean and maintain houses in order to start being a housecleaner. One specific story from the text is when Marisela, a woman interviewed about her experiences, recounted how she learned how to be a housecleaner by saying, “‘I didn’t know how to clean or anything. My sister taught me,’” (Hondagneu-Sotelo 45). The author goes on to elaborate how often times Latina immigrants who began as domestic workers were taught by others how to do the job and relied on people with past experiences to introduce them to the proper chemicals and names of products for cleaning. This aspect of the text reminded me of when my uncle explained to us how he felt when he first started working and how he learned to do his job. He explained that by sticking closely to other friends, he quickly learned how to complete all of the tasks that were necessary to keep his job. For the first few years of being there, he copied every single thing that his friend did and tried to keep up with the pace, despite not speaking the same language that other coworkers and many of the patrons spoke. Through this passing of knowledge from one migrant worker to another, many can learn and gain experience from one another to continue working in the United States. Just like my uncle, many of the women in domestic work learned from friends or relatives how to do the job correctly. However, this continuation of knowledge and guidance often relies on connections and community, which isn’t always the case for migrant workers entering the United States. Another important note is that the migrant experiences for men and women from Latin America are very different, but I was able to make certain connections between aspects of the text of what this transition to the United States looked like.
In the second reading, “Policing Strangers and Borderlands” by Nayan Shah, Shah makes this varying access to connections and community for different workers visible through the court case elaborated upon near the end of the text. In 1912, Jago, Bram, and Don Singh were given the verdict of guilty of sodomy by a jury. However, through the efforts of community organizing and in the creation of a defense, P.L. Verma, who served as a translator for part of the trial, was able to help out Don maintain his reputation and grant him parole (Shah 85). However, this wasn’t the case for Jago Singh and Bram Singh, who didn’t have the same support throughout the trial, “The efforts by Verma to defend Don Singh and reclaim his married man’s honor from lurid allegations and circumstances did not blunt the broader suspicions of South Asian unmarried men, and in particular Jago Singh’s and Bram Singh’s convictions,” (Shah 86). While my uncle and Don Singh had community support in very different situations, the overlapping factor is the identity of being a migrant and existing in a space where you can find some form of alliance and help. Don Singh’s ability to have growing assistance reminded me of my uncle’s stories of how his friends would help teach him how to do everything once he arrived at the golf course. Many of these friends are family friends or neighbors from our small town in Mexico who were able to migrate before him, establishing their presence in the United States before he arrived. His ability to arrive at a place where others from the same community already were, helped pave the way for my uncle to find a community of people who could help him as he migrated and started a new job in a new country. Similarly, Don’s support from other South Asian community members allowed for him to maintain his reputation and changed the impact that the trial had on him, especially in comparison to the other convicted men.
~Andrea
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